he Nelson of the sixteenth
century? Scarcely among the picked scoundrels of Newgate could men be
found for such work; and shall we believe it of men like these? It is to
me impossible. Yet, if it was done at all, it was done by those four
ministers.

[Sidenote: To what purpose the multiplication of offences, and the
number of offenders?]

Even if we could believe that they forged the accusations, yet they
would at least limit the dimensions of them. The most audacious villain
will not extend his crimes beyond what he requires for his object; and
if the king desired only to rid himself of his wife, to what purpose the
multiplication of offenders, and the long list of acts or guilt, when a
single offence with the one accomplice who was ready to abide by a
confession would have sufficed? The four gentlemen gratuitously, on this
hypothesis, entangled in the indictment, were nobly connected: one of
them, Lord Rochfort, was himself a peer; they had lived, all four,
several years at the court, and were personally known to every member
of the council. Are we to suppose that evidence was invented with no
imaginable purpose, for wanton and needless murders?--that the council
risked the success of their scheme, by multiplying charges which only
increased difficulty of proof, and provoked the interference of the
powerful relations of the accused?[587]

Such are the difficulties in which, at this early stage of the
transaction, we are already implicated. They will not diminish as we
proceed.

[Sidenote: Friday, May 12. The court opens.]

[Sidenote: The four commoners are brought to the bar.]

[Sidenote: A petty jury return a verdict of guilty.]

Friday, the 12th of May, was fixed for the opening of the court. On that
day, a petty jury was returned at Westminster, for the trial of Sir
Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, and Mark Smeton.
The commission sat,--the Earl of Wiltshire sitting with them,[588]--and
the four prisoners were brought to the bar. On their arraignment, Mark
Smeton, we are told, pleaded guilty of adultery with the queen; not
guilty of the other charges. Norris, Weston, and Brereton severally
pleaded not guilty. Verdict, guilty. The king's sergeant and attorney
pray judgment. Judgment upon Smeton, Norris, Weston, and Brereton as
usual in cases of high treason. This is all which the record contains.
The nature of the evidence is not mentioned. But again there was a jury;
and if we have no